1964 West German presidential election

An indirect presidential election (officially the 4th Federal Convention) was held in West Germany on 1 July 1964. President Heinrich Lübke was renominated by the Christian Democratic Union. The Free Democratic Party nominated justice minister Ewald Bucher. The Social Democratic Party was divided. The official party line was that they supported President Lübke's re-election. Some have speculated this was a first move towards the grand-coalition that brought Kurt Kiesinger to power two years later. However, the high number of abstentions seems to indicate that not all members of the SPD caucus agreed with this move, as does the fact that Ewald Bucher received at least 19 votes from outside his own party.

1964 West German presidential election

1 July 1964
 
Nominee Heinrich Lübke Ewald Bucher
Party CDU FDP
Electoral vote 710 123

President before election

Heinrich Lübke
CDU

Elected President

Heinrich Lübke
CDU

Composition of the Federal Convention

The President is elected by the Federal Convention consisting of all the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates representing the states. These are divided proportionally by population to each state, and each state's delegation is divided among the political parties represented in its parliament so as to reflect the partisan proportions in the parliament.

By Party By State
Party Members State Members
CDU/CSU 485 Bundestag 521
SPD 445 Baden-Württemberg 73
FDP 104 Bavaria 89
BP 3 Berlin 20
GB/BHE 2 Bremen 6
SVP 1 Hamburg 17
DPS 1 Hesse 45
Independents 1 Lower Saxony 61
Total 1042 North Rhine-Westphalia 147
Rhineland-Palatinate 32
Saarland 10
Schleswig-Holstein 21
Total 1042

Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012

Results

Candidate Parties Votes %
Heinrich LübkeCDU/CSU, SPD71068.1
Ewald BucherFDP12311.8
Abstentions18717.9
Invalid votes40.4
Not present181.7
Total1,042100
Source: Bundestag

References

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